he duke of
Buckingham was the first; who intended to have exposed Sir Robert under
the name of Bilboa in the Rehearsal; but the plague which then prevailed
occasioned the theatres to be shut up, and the people of fashion to quit
the town. In this interval he altered his resolution, and levelled his
ridicule at a much greater name, under that of Bayes.

Thomas Shadwell the poet, tho' a man of the same principles with Sir
Robert, concerning the revolution and state matters, was yet so angry
with the knight for his supercilious domineering manner of behaving,
that he points him out under the name of Sir Positive At All, one of his
characters in the comedy called the Sullen Lovers, or the Impertinents;
and amongst the same persons is the lady Vain, a Courtezan, which the
wits then understood to be the mistress of Sir Robert Howard, whom he
afterwards thought proper to marry.

In February 1692, being then in the decline of life, he married one Mrs
Dives, maid of honour to the Queen. The merit of this author seems to
have been of a low rate, for very little is preserved concerning him,
and none of his works are now read; nor is he ever mentioned, but when
that circumstance of the duke of Buckingham's intending to ridicule him,
is talked of.

Had Sir Robert been a man of any parts, he had sufficient advantages
from his birth and fortune to have made a figure, but the highest
notice which he can claim in the republic of letters, is, that he was
brother-in-law to Dryden.

His works are,

Poems, containing a panegyric on the King, and songs and sonnets, Lond.
1660, and a panegyric on general Monk.

His plays are six in number, viz.

1. The Blind Lady, a Comedy.

2. The Committee, or the Faithful Irishman, a Comedy, printed folio,
London 1665. This comedy is often acted, and the success of it chiefly
depends upon the part of Teague being well performed.

3. The Great Favourite, or the Duke of Lerma, a Tragi-Comedy, acted at
the theatre-royal 1668. This play was criticised by Mr. Dryden.

4. The Indian Queen, a Tragedy.

5. Surprizal, a Tragi-comedy, acted at the theatre royal 1665.

6. The Vestal Virgin; or the Roman Ladies, a Tragedy, 1665. In his
prologue to this play, Sir Robert has the following couplet, meant as an
answer to Dryden's animadversions on the Duke of Lerma.

This doth a wretched dearth of wit betray,
When things of kind on one another prey.

He has written likewise,

The History of the Rei